Republicans support Donald J. Trump announcing an unusually early bid for the White House. This is a move designed in part to protect the former president from a series of harmful exposures resulting from an investigation of attempts to attach to power after losing the 2020 elections.
While many Republicans welcome Mr. Trump’s participation in the race, his move also exacerbates a permanent division as to whether the former president is the party’s best hope for regaining the White House. Will let you. The party is also divided on whether his candidacy will be an unnecessary distraction from the midterm elections or a direct threat to democracy.
Mr. Trump has long hinted at the White House’s third consecutive bid and has run many campaigns over the past year. Just as a pair of investigations have been strengthened and Congressional testimony reveals new details about Mr. Trump’s indifference to the threat of violence on January 6 and his refusal to act to stop the riots. , He has accelerated his plans in the last few weeks.
Mr. Trump also monitors that some of his priority candidates have been defeated in recent primaries, and has long said voters hold the party firmly among potential Republican competitors. It raises expectations that it may be drifting from a thought-provoking politician.
Rather than humble Mr. Trump, development reasserted him as leader, preying on harmful headlines and encouraging him to seek attention from potential rivals, including the government. Florida’s Ron DeSantis, donors and voters are becoming more popular. Republicans close to Mr. Trump said he believes the formal announcement reinforces his claim that the investigation is a political motivation.
Mr. Trump has entered the race as a clear leading candidate, with a Republican approval rating of around 80%, but there are signs that the number of voters in the party is increasing and he is exploring other options.
“I think everyone is inevitable,” said Haley Barber, a former Republican National Committee chairman who served as Governor of Mississippi for eight years.
The timing of the official announcement from Mr. Trump remains uncertain. However, he recently surprised some advisers by saying that even his team might declare a candidacy on social media without warning, and aides are basically in time for the announcement as early as this month. We are struggling to build a competitive campaign infrastructure.
The timing is extraordinary, with presidential candidates usually announcing candidates a year before the election, which can have an immediate impact on Republicans seeking to rule Congress in November. The presence of Mr. Trump as an active candidate makes it easier for Democrats to turn midterm elections into a referendum for the former president. Since his defeat in 2020, the former president has mercilessly spread lies about the legitimacy of the election. Some Republicans fear that it could distract them from the notebook issue that gives them a strong advantage in parliamentary races.
Republican strategist and former Republican chairman Dick Wadhams said:
The former president’s team remains controversial as to whether he should run again. Opponents of the White House’s third bid can, from doubts about Mr. Trump’s remaining political power, clarify a clear rationale for his execution and avoid repeating 2020? He has expressed concern up to the question of whether or not.
Others are urging Mr. Trump to take the time. His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., plays a more central role in Mr. Trump’s political adviser and sets up a broader campaign team around him on his father in preparation for execution. I told other people to do it.
One of the most compelling arguments against the early announcement was the Federal Election Funding Act. If Mr. Trump announced, he would not be eligible to use any of the $ 100 million parked on his political action committee to directly support the presidential election. His campaign is also constrained by a strict donation limit of $ 2,900 per person for the primary. In short, he was able to fund the candidate directly with the largest donor only once in the next two years or so.
However, Mr. Trump’s orders for small donors are still strong, and some of his team are not worried about funding restrictions.
The timing debate arises when the investigation into the behavior of Mr. Trump and his associates is gaining momentum. The Justice Department is considering efforts to maintain its position after Mr. Trump’s defeat. A prosecutor in Fulton County, Georgia, agreed with a grand jury as part of an investigation into whether the former president and his team tried to influence the number of votes there. Each is separate from the House Committee, which scrutinizes his actions in preparation for the January 6 Capitol riots.
Among those urging Mr. Trump to announce immediately is South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. Graham said the former president would be blamed or trusted for what happened in the November elections, suggesting that early announcements would focus Trump’s attention on policy.
“It’s up to him to run,” Graham said in an interview. “But the key to his success is to compare his policy agenda and policy success with what is happening today.”
Other Republican leaders have sought to discourage Mr. Trump from his early announcement.
Republican National Committee chairman Ronna McDaniel urged Mr. Trump to wait until the end of the interim period, fearing that news about his campaign could upset the party’s interim message. One RNC official said the party would stop paying his statutory costs associated with the investigation by the Attorney General of New York when Mr. Trump launched the campaign. Still, according to people familiar with the conversation, McDaniel recently resigned from the idea of announcing before the election.
But even Trump helps those who support another campaign worry that the road to the former president’s third nomination is more difficult than he admits.
People close to Mr. Trump are raising concerns about the legal and political implications that could lead from a parliamentary hearing to a parliamentary riot. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson said this week that Mr. Trump knew that some of his supporters had weapons that day and still let his team pass a security checkpoint. I testified that I recommended it to. Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, who is on the committee, said the panel had evidence of witness tampering.
By expressing concern about the potential political implications of the testimony, Trump attacked Hutchinson and posted a dozen messages on his Truth Social website denying her most explosive testimony. I responded to the hearing in real time.
Few Republican officials spoke publicly about the hearing, and most said nothing about the parliamentary inquiry or dismissed it as a fake party. But there are signs that Republicans are aware of their potential.
“MS. Hutchinson will be a star member of the Women’s Republican Club — a devoted conservative and has no reason to say anything but the truth.” .. Since Trump. He was one of the few lawmakers to speak on record. “It empowers testimony that allows Americans to make their own decisions.”
Important revelation from the January 6 hearing
Mick Mulvaney, one of Trump’s White House Chief of Staff, told CBS News that he could no longer defend Trump after hearing Hutchison’s allegations. In a subsequent interview, he thanked him for his comments and said he had heard from 20 political appointments from the Trump administration who told him they agreed.
Malverny did not say whether he would vote for Trump if he was nominated in 2024. Malverny, South Carolina, home of a former adviser, said a political operative with knowledge of convocation.
Weekly major contests over the past two months have proved that Mr. Trump’s policies have reshaped the Republican Party. However, the Constitution in a red hat also repeatedly shows independence from the Patriarch of the Make America Great Again movement. The Republican primary supported some of Mr. Trump’s supporters, especially in the Senate primary, but refused to elect him in Georgia, Colorado, and elsewhere.
“There is some evidence that some Republican voters are trying to walk slowly from Donald Trump,” said Republican strategist Scott Jennings. Jennings said he wasn’t surprised by Trump’s enthusiasm for jumping into the presidential election. “If you are wearing shoes, you have to try to put out the fire, because it burns to the point of burning.”
In interviews with 20 Republican voters, party activists, and elected civil servants, few said the January 6 hearing had influenced their interest in other candidates. However, some said they were looking for a candidate with less division.
Jason Sheppard, a former Georgia Republican aide to Newt Gingrich, said: If Mr. Trump wins the nomination, Mr. Shepherd said the Republicans would not hesitate to support him in the general election.
Nicole Walter, CEO of a manufacturing company in the suburbs of Chicago and a board member of the National Association of Manufacturers, has an office decorated with her photographs of Mr. Trump’s visit to the White House when he was president. I am.
But Walter said in an interview last month at her office in Wauconda, Illinois, that Trump was too toxic to suburban voters for the Republicans to win the general election.
“Too many people really hate him,” Walter said. “I want everyone to get together around him and get independent. I don’t think he’ll be able to do that if he runs.”
Post-presidential polls have consistently shown that Mr. Trump remains the most powerful person in the party. But potential competitors are not afraid.
Last week, a survey of Republicans in New Hampshire, an early presidential primary, showed a statistical link between Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who told Trump last year that he had no intention of fighting for a presidential nomination, continues to lay the groundwork for the 2024 bid.
Pompeo told others that he could beat Trump at a caucuses in Iowa, according to people familiar with the conversation.
Jonathan Martin When Shane Gold Mach report.